Statement

“I am a contemporary abstract artist. For my medium, I use traditional tapestry techniques and hand-dyed silks of varied textures and sheens along with metallic threads woven on a cotton warp. Instead of applying paint to canvas, I dye the fibers first and then, in essence, weave my own canvas. This creates a tactile, immediate surface that interacts with light in a very unique way. Working with the language of color I use hundreds of color combinations in each of my pieces. Applying the chiaroscuro effect of balancing light and dark I attempt to illuminate the space between the interior and exterior landscapes of life.”

Rebecca Bluestone
Santa Fe, NM
January 2015

In 2009 Rebecca was commissioned to create three tapestries, @13×3 feet for the main lobby of the Thornburg Investment Management headquarters in Santa Fe, NM designed by renowned architect, Ricardo Legoretta. In 2007 she was commissioned to create three tapestries, @13×5 feet, for the main lobby of the new headquarters for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City that opened in 2008. In 2002 the Denver Art Museum featured her work in a 12 year overview from June 15-November 10, 2002. This exhibition represented the first time the Denver Art Museum had shown a solo contemporary fiber artist. Rebecca has received numerous commissions, including a Federal Art in Architecture commission for the US Courthouse in Albuquerque, NM.

The following are just a few of the public and private collections containing her work: Chicago Art Institute; Museum of Arts & Design, NYC; Denver Art Museum; Thornburg Investment Management, Santa Fe, NM; Palazzo Hotel, Las Vegas; Ritz-Carlton, Tucson, AZ; Albuquerque Museum; New Mexico State Capitol; US Embassies in Ottawa, Canada and Quito, Ecuador; Holden Cancer Center, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA and the private collection of Robert Redford. Rebecca’s work has been regularly seen in national publications including, THE NEW YORK TIMES, ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST, AMERICAN CRAFT, FIBERARTS, HANDWOVEN MAGAZINE, SOUTHWEST ART and SHUTTLE, SPINDLE & DYEPOT.

FROM THE CRITICS:

“This show, on view in a modest recycled space, can only hint at the range of work produced by its four artists, who are from different parts of the country and have significant exhibition careers…Included are weavings by Rebecca Bluestone…Subtle movement, created through graduated increases and decreases in the degree of light built into clustered horizontal bars in Ms. Bluestones Hexagram/4, encourages a rather sophisticated perceptual adjustment“.

Phyllis Braff, The New York Times

“…three works from her Four Corners series: its a shame they can’t all be shown together, because their shifting colors and their varying patterns of small squares are closely related variations on a theme…The small squares draw no immediate associations for me, but they don’t seem random. I imagine a code that only Bluestone knows. It gives a certain mystery to a very simple composition”.